So… ToonCon…

Toon Con 2011 is coming up in October. I’m planning to run a few games there. It seems like the organizers are trying to actually get stuff up on their site as they are hastling me (okay, one email and a friendly inquiry... a couple weeks ago...) about getting them info about exactly WHAT I’m going to run…

so…

Who’s coming and what do you want to play…?! Here’s kind of what I had in mind:

Vimy Ridge 1917

I thought I’d run my Vimy 1917 game again. The game focused on the Canadian 4th Division’s assault at the far right of the line.

I have some work to do on the trenches. First of all, the figures are on new bases and no longer fit in the trenches. Also I kind of rushed the terrain and never really had the time to finish them up the way I’d have liked – with duckboards and revetting and sandbags and such. I might also make some newer (bigger) barrage markers. Otherwise everything is good to go for this one – figures complete and I more or less have a handle on the rules (the same modified Contemptible Little Armies I used last time)

The game is played with four players (all Canadians) with me playing the Germans (though last time I had a helper – Will – and that turned out to be very… well… HELPFUL!!)

Something “Colonial”

I’ve been pretty interested in the Zulu War of 1879 lately and been getting a lot of stuff ready for it. My eventual plan is to play out the campaign using Mark Fastoso and Roy Jones Colonial Campaigns: The Zulu War, 1879. I’m not sure if I’d have enough stuff for any of the big battles/scenarios presented in the book… or exactly what rules I’d use – probably something cobbled together based on Ever Victorious Armies – with a few ideas stolen from Black Powder and The Sword and the Flame.

Alternatively I could do something VSF/Space:1889-ish… using the same rules (with some additional tweaks) and half of the same figures (the British!)

I probably wouldn’t be able to do BOTH, however.

The Zulu scenarios look like they would handle three zulu players (or maybe four… or five – depending on the scenario and how many Zulus I got painted…) and maybe a couple british players (or maybe I could play the British and all the players could play the Zulus…?)

Savage Worlds!?

There are any number of Savage Worlds skirmishes I could throw down at the drop of a hat – so this is the one I most need feedback about… (so those who are coming – what would you sign up for and play!?) Here are just a few ideas:

Vietnam
Patrol/Sweep? Assault?
Up to four players – Easch player controls a squad of US soldiers vs. GM controlled Viet Cong.

Modern
British SAS take down Taliban/Al Quada leader
Up to four players – players control a fireteam of British SAS vs. GM controlled Taliban.

Zombies
Players must collect supplies and get off the table while avoiding zombies
4-6 players – each plays a wild card character vs. GM controlled Zombies.
Need to make some new terrain

Realms of Cthulhu
Heroes trying to stop evil cultists from summoning other worldly evil.
Up to 6 players – each player controls a wildcard hero vs. GM controlled cultists.

Pulp Adventure

Rippers
Monster Hunt.
Up to 4 or 6 players – players control a Wild Card monster hunter (and their allies extras) versus GM controlled monsters.

Supers
Players control super heroes vs. GM controlled super villains and their minions.

World War 2
North Africa? SAS/FFL/Commandos raiding German/Italian compound
East Front? Street fighting in Stalingrad? Kursk Tank Battle?
Northwest Europe? Canadians in Normandy? Paras in Normandy or Arnhem or Varsity? Kelly’s Heroes? Eagle Has Landed?

WEIRD War 2
As WW2 above, but with extra added weirdness!?

Darkest Africa
Explorers and/or British soldiers vs. natives and/or rival explorers.

Pirates
Multiple groups all looking for the same buried treasure on remote tropical island?

Age of Sail Naval Battle
Up to six (eight) players – Each player controls a single ship of the line.
This might take a long time to play… with that many players…

Seven Years War
Washington’s Ambush.
Up to four players – players control bands of either British Militia and allied Indians or French Colonial Infantry.

Early medival
Robin Hood and his merry men ambush The Sherrif of Nottinghams men in Sherwood Forrest?

Fantasy
Defend Village against an orc/viking raid…?
Up to four (or six?) players – Players control heroes and villagers vs. GM controlled raiders
(might need to paint a few more Orcs…)

Sci-Fi
It’s a bug hunt. Colonial Marines (or something similar) trying to get back to their ship on a jungle world infested with alien bug creatures.
Up to four players – players control teams of colonial marines vs. GM controlled aliens

…. I’m sure if I thought about it a bit I could come up with some more… ideas?


Other Games

Earlier I had considered some big battle De Bellis Antiquitatis or Hordes of the Things Games… or some Black Powder or Cold War Commander or Blitzkrieg Commander… But that’s just not where I’m at these days… and I don’t want to overdo it.

I might actually like to PLAY some games over the weekend!? (Expecially if Bob comes out and brings HIS HOTT game!?)

Revisiting Vimy

A number of things have got me back to thinking about the Vimy Project. Primarily a renewed interest in the early 20th Century (along with the late 19th…) and along with it a re-visitation of the Contemptible Little Armies/Ever Victorious Armies rules. I’ve also re-based all the Great War stuff on single bases (thought bigger ones than they have previously been on). Thinking about what to run at Toon Con - the new convention in Saskatoon this fall.

For those not aware in 2006/2007 I embarked on a project that, originally, would ultimately lead to playing the attack by the entire Canadian Corps at Vimy Ridge on the 100th Anniversary in 2017. I meant to built the terrain and forces incrementally; at the 2007 Mayday convention in Edmonton I hosted a game of the Fourth Canadian Division’s attack at the north end of the line. every couple years I had planned on building the terrain and forces for the next division down the line (3rd, then 4th, finally 1st.…).

By the end of 2007 I’d kind of lost interest in the Great War and, despite the Vimy game’s success, REALLY lost interest in Contemptible Little Armies. I had re-based all the Great War figures onto multi-figure bases and tried a number of different rules and variants (mostly of my own devising). And nothing seemed to work out so I just walked away from the project for a while.

Briefly a year or so ago we experimented with a variant of DBA that seemed promising. I even ran a Weekend Campaign using the system. Shortly after that (probably because of it) I lost interest in those rules.

A rethinking of rules and basing at the end of last year got me re-basing again and, as I mentioned above, all those figures were re-re-based back onto individual washers.

During all this I occasionally thought about reviving the Vimy Project, but always it came down to I’d have to absolutely settle on some rules and a basing system. If I were to keep them on the multi figure bases I would have to do some serious modify the existing terrain to make the much bigger bases fit!

Well I’ve settled on the basing (no, really…). And I’m thinking I will return to the modified version of CLA that I used in the original game… though perhaps with a few more modifications.

Serendipitously, I’ve seen a number of pictures of an ANZAC Bay/Galliopli terrain board the Wargames Illustrated commissioned for a demo game at 2011 Salute that got me pretty stoked. It looks pretty much how I originally envisioned the Vimy terrain looking… unfortunately in 2007 I ran out of time and never got around to adding the sort of details I had originally wanted.

(you can see the pictures of the ANZAC Bay terrain on Facebook or at the Lead Adventure Forum - They're really quite stunning - and INSPIRING!).

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


I dug out the terrain boards this afternoon to have a look at them…


As I had feared with the bigger bases the figures barely fit into the trenches… which isn’t such a big deal as I’m feeling pretty stoked to do some work on them and get then looking a little better anyway.

Most of the trenches I’ll have to cut and widen up. The I’ll add some revetting and duck boards and some sand bags on the paraphet. The Revetting and duckboards witll be easy enough, but I’m not entirely sure how to best go about making sandbags…. Cheaply…

I could potentially be back on track for the bigger project too… in 2012 I could work on the third division, 2014 work on the second, and 2016 get to work on the first so the whole corps attack could be played in spring of 2017…

So that’s one of two projects I’m going to be trying to focus on for the rest of this year. This one shouldn’t be too much work as all the figures are done, all I really have to do is make the terrain prettier.

The other project will be the Zulu War… more on that in a bit…

2010 Gaming

Looking at the Board Game Geek Stats I played a few games this year.

Savage Worlds was the most played game at 47 plays. Of those it seems 20 were World War (or Weird War) Two games, 14 were Realms of Cthulhu, 4 were set in Rokugan (the setting of the Legends of the Five Rings series of games), and the balance (9) were likely Sci-Fi or generic fantasy skirmishes… SW skirmishing was up considerably from The Previous Year where I apparently only got in 18 games…

I apparently played 20 games of Kids of Carcasonne… I don’t remember playing that many… I’m not doubting it or anything, they must have mostly been at the beginning of the year.

In terms of other miniature wargames I only got in 6 games of DBA and 5 games of HOTT – both waaaay down from the previous year where I played 68 games of HOTT and 28 games of DBA…

I also played two games of Contemptible Little Armies, and an “Unpublished Prototype” – John’s homegrown “Old School” Horse and Musket rules. (and I WILL be giving Black Powder a try tonight!)

For next year…

While I definitely want to keep the weekly Savage Worlds games going, I hope to get some more wargaming in; Contemptible Little Armies, DBA, Hordes of the Things, and some Black Powder if it works out okay. I wouldn’t mind dusting off some of the moderns to get in a game or two of Cold War Commander or even Blitzkrieg Commander.

To facilitatie this I’m thinking I should set up a biweekly war game night and/or set aside one Saturday afternoon each month to play some games. Of course the Saturday afternoon I was also thinking I might use for some of the big board wargames I’ve pickedup recently… Age of Conan, Warrior Knights, Soldier Kings, Red Russia, etc.

I’d definitely like to run another HOTT or DBA campaign this year. Probably a weekend thing, but I’d like to try an extended wargames campaign with local players at some point…

We shall see. Thanks to everyone that played games with me this year – I hope we can play more in the coming year!

Distracted…? ME…!!?

Just… nevermind…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


Gaston and his wife Yvette (and wee Baby Jean) are from West Wind Productions. World War Two French civilians (See!? I’m not THAT distracted!)


These are… um… Russians from... well.... the Crimean War.... They are manufactured by The Foundry.

Okay, maybe I’m a little distracted…


The casualty… well, I’m not sure what make he is. He’s actually an “old West” dead guy, but I painted his duster in a grey-brown so he could pass as Russian dead from the Crimea to WW2…


Finally a Space:1889 Martian from RAFM that I’ve had for over 20 years now and just never got around to painting. I just don’t dig the yellow-skinned Martians of the Space:1889 universe – so I went with a reddish brown. I may vary the skin colour of the Martains; including some oranges and yellowish browns… Perhaps the Canal Martians will be reddish, the Hill Martians orange, and the High Martians yellowish…?

Yeah… distracted…

I’ll get back to those T-34s in a moment…

Thinking more on the Plans for 2011, I’m kind of leaning towards a Savage Worlds mini-campaign for February. It may or may not be an extension of our current campaign(s) and I’ll probably cap it at six participants – the regular Savages, of course, getting first crack. For June I’m thinking I’d like to run a Hordes of the Things campaign (much like the one I ran two years ago). And for the fall… I’m definitely thinking about Quebec 1759. I’m not sure if we will use DBA-x or Black Powder yet – as I haven’t actually TRIED Black Powder yet – but I’ll give them both a try when the latter arrives.


Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I don’t know…

Game Plan 2011

It’s also that time of year when I start to look back at what I’ve done over the past year and start to think about plans for the next year. I know I am far more productive when I have a plan – and especially when there is some specific goal worked into that plan – a game weekend or other big event of some sort.

However, I have, in the past, bitten off more than I could chew, so to speak. Took on projects that were just too big, took too long and just couldn’t keep me focused. Quarterly plans seem to work better, with easily achievable goals and a sense of what might come after, but not putting down anything in stone.

So what AM I doing now?

Currently most of my gaming has been Savage Worlds skimishy-tabletop-adventure type gaming (on ”Savage Saturday Night”). It’s mostly been World War Two (or “Weird War Two) for the last bit (see the East Front campaign at Savage Timmy’s Playhouse). I’ve been having a lot of fun running it and the players seem pretty committed to showing up and seem to be having a lot of fun with it too.

What would I LIKE to do this next year?

Regular Gamin’

Well I’d like to keep “Savage Saturdays” going. I’m still interested in the East Front campaign and wouldn’t mind seeing it through to the end of the war… or until all the characters are killed in some climactic battle against some ultimate German evil nasty.

I have a Realms of Cthulhu campaign on the back burner and would like to get playing that again.

The release of the Savage Worlds version of Space:1889 may very well pose a major potential distraction…

Back in October I did get in a few games with John (DBA – Vikings and Saxons, DBA-x – Seven years War, CLA – Very British Civil War). I’d like to get in a few more games like that every so often… Try out Black Powder… Get some more DBA and HOTT games in… maybe even some more Contemptible Little Armies and Blitzkrieg/Cold War/Future War Commander…? Maybe I should set up a regular biweekly game night for wargames…?


Events

I am thinking about hosting a couple events again this year and participating in a convention in the fall. A friend of mine and some other fellows are organizing a game convention in Saskatoon this October, which I will definitely run a few games at. I am pondering hosting a couple game days/weekends in February and/or June.

Toon Con

I currently have enough stuff that I could now, with minimal preparation, throw down a number of games for 4-6 players to participate in. Most options would be various Savage Worlds skirmish games (Victorian Horror, Fantasy, Pirates, Seven Years War, Dark Ages, Great War, Russian Civil War, Pulp Adventure, Sci-fi, Vietnam, Modern Ops, Zombie Apocalypse… etc, etc…). I could easily bust out a Big Battle Hordes of the Things game with three or four commands per side (Goodies vs. Baddies). Possibly a DBA-x Big Battle with two or three commands per side (Seven Years War, Russian Civil War, Great War).

If I finished up a couple re-basing projects (maybe of week of work) I could probably run a biggish Cold War Commander game; Soviet Motor Rifles and/or Air Assault Troops versus a scratch force of British, Canadians, and Americans. With a bit more work I could put together a Contemptible Little Armies game. Vimy, perhaps? Or maybe a “Back of Beyond”/Russian Civil War game…? If I painted a couple more units of British and German Askaris I could put on a decent sized East Africa game.

It might be nice to use this as an objective/deadline for some new(-ish) project after I finish the WW2 stuff. Luckily I have until about March to firm up what games I’m going to run there. Preferably this would be something that builds on things I already have (rather than something completely new). The two options that spring immediately to mind are Fulford Gate or Stamford Bridge 1066 and Quebec 1759.

I have complete Viking and Anglo-Danish armies for DBA already – plus a number of extra stands for both. I also have enough unpainted figures to do at least two more Viking armies and one other English army – and I could cast enough generic Dark Age infantry men to round out a third army/command for the English. Make some terrain… wouldn’t be too hard to put down a big battle with three commands per side.

I did have a plan to do a big Quebec 1759 event back in 2009 (for the 250th anniversary). But it sort of ran out of steam and fizzled before I’d got much done. I did get some skirmishing figures ready and played a game or two (Washington’s Ambush). Near the end of last year I got to work on the forces again and finished up a couple DBA-x British and French Armies. I’d have to finish off two more Brigades/commands for each to do the Battle of Quebec. Also seems do-able. Alternatively I could run it using Black Powder - if that turned out to be a better system…

Well, I’ve got a couple months to think on it.


Game Days/Weekends

The idea here would be to follow the previous format of Friday night and all day Saturday. A whole weekend is just too damn tiring…

Februrary?

February is actually coming up pretty fast (from a game event planning perspective)… I had thought about a small 1066 campaign weekend with just a couple of guys that I might actually play in. Not sure if that’s going to happen. Because I won’t have time to get a lot of new stuff painted – whatever the format – it will have to pretty much be with stuff I already have done.

A Hordes of the Things campaign is a possibility – have plenty of armies, I’ve done it before, just need to recruit players, make a map and I’m ready to go. I was, however, also considering a Savage Worlds skirmish campaign – a series of bigger linked scenarios that are interconnected and bring our heroes to some ultimate confrontation in a final, epic, climactic conclusion on Saturday night…

I have a feeling the latter option may be what I do with in the end. Might even tie it in to one of the campaigns I’m currently running on Savage Saturday.

June

HOTT or DBA campaign for sure. If I was going to do the 1066 event in the fall this might be a good intermediary goal/deadline to have a couple more Dark Ages armies completed.


So… What to work on…

28mm World War Two

I’ve been working on my 28mm WW2 forces for a good chunk of this past year. I think the first order of business will be to carry on and finish that up. It happens to be what I am playing most these days (see the East Front campaign at Savage Timmy’s Playhouse).

I did a little stocktaking of the WW2 stuff a few weeks back. Since then I’ve finished off the Canadians and the Russians (well, except for the universal Carrier and three T-34s). Next I’ll probably work on some partisans (They conveniently double as armed civilians for Pulp Adventure games) and then maybe some Germans…? Finish up either the SS or the Fallshirmjägers of DAK? Chip away at the mountain of Heer. In between batches of Germans I could also finish up the British Commandos and Paras. After that…possibly the Japanese...? The Americans and Italians are pretty low on the priority list – partly because I haven’t really even started them, partly because I don’t have much immediate use for them in any of the adventures/scenarios/campaigns I’m planning for the immediate future.

..and then…?

I guess it depends on what I plan to do for Toon Con in the fall… either some Seven Years War British and French or Dark Ages Vikings and English (and Irish, and Scots, and Welsh…)

…and then there’s all the other projects that keep tempting me that I should really just ignore and know that I’ll get to them SOMEDAY…

DBA
4x Ealry Imperial Roman armies, plus Early Germans, Picts, Thracians, and Skythians…?
5x Successors (Antigonos, Lysemachos, Ptolemaios, Seleucus, Antipatros) …? Plus Classical Indians…
ECW - Royalist, Parliamentarian, Scots…?

HOTT
Generic fantasy - Dwarves, Elves, Undead, Humans, Centaurs, Narnians,
LOTR - Rohan, Mordor, Moria
L5R- Lion, Crane, Dragon, Crab, Unicorn, Naga, 3x Shdowlands (undead – oni – goblins)

Black Powder or DBA-x
Seven Years War
18th Century Imagi-nations
War of 1812

Great War – CLA?
Vimy
East Africa
Turks
Back of Beyond

Victorian Horror/Sci-Fi

More WW2
Early War French?
British 14th Army in Burma?

Oh don’t get me started thinking about all the 20mm BKC/CWC stuff…